A variety of wound dressings are used to treat a variety of wounds. Generally these wound dressings are preferably designed so as not to stick to the wound bed. Also, it is desirable if they are pliable and have a soft wound-contacting surface. In addition, it is desirable if they are capable of donating some moisture to a dry wound and also absorbing excess amounts of wound exudate and/or to allow for the passage of wound exudate into an absorbent material placed over the dressing.
The sterilization of wound dressings prior to use on a patient is important to ensure the safety of the patient. Typical methods used to sterilize wound dressings are ethylene oxide gas sterilization, gas plasma technology, steam sterilization, gamma irradiation, and electron beam irradiation. Each sterilization method has advantages and disadvantages in terms of types of packaging needed, cost and impact on the properties of the dressing throughout its shelf life. Ethylene oxide and gas plasma sterilization methods require a gas to permeate into the packaged product and come into contact with the surface of the dressing to reduce the bioburden of the dressing. This requirement to penetrate the packaging material in order to ensure sterility limits the type of packaging that can be used (i.e., the packaging must be permeable to the sterilizing gas). Dressings that contain significant levels of moisture are typically not sterilized using these gas sterilization methods because moisture would most likely also be transported through the permeable packaging, thereby limiting the shelf life of the product. Steam sterilization, gamma irradiation, and electron beam irradiation can be applied to wider range of packaging systems, but these methods also have disadvantages. Steam sterilization can be problematic, because the application of heat to the dressing can adversely affect the dressing. Similarly, application of gamma or electron beam radiation to a dressing, especially a polymeric based dressing, can cause crosslinking or degradation of the polymer to occur in the polymer, thus changing the properties of the dressing.